The January 4 edition of The Living Church is available online to registered subscribers. This edition’s cover story reports on congregations that learn from some of the fundraising strategies of other nonprofit entities.
TLC correspondent G. Jeffrey MacDonald writes:
Signs of vitality abound these days at St. George’s Church in Maplewood, New Jersey. Attendance is up more than 10 percent in the past five years to 135. Each Sunday, newcomer parents and their young kids add to the laughter, banter, and joyful songs that fill the space.
But when Monday arrives and budgetary constraints come to bear, St. George’s has less to sing about. While more are worshiping, fewer are pledging — 20 percent fewer than five years ago. Traditional stewardship messages are not resonating with a younger generation. The task of coming up with more than $300,000 yearly to run the church now falls to fewer than 100 pledging families.
News
Haitian Conflict Escalates
Features
Learning to Ask | By G. Jeffrey MacDonald
The Authentic Samuel Johnson
Advice for the Young | By David Hein
Anglican Faces
Thomas John Claggett
Maryland’s First Bishop | By Charles Hoffacker
The Five-Tool Priest | By Daniel H. Martins
Cultures
Still-Amazing Grace | By Retta Blaney
Excess Baggage | By Steven R. Ford
A Tribute: P.D. James, 1920-2014 | By Sue Careless
Books
For Such a Time as This | Edited by Kathryn Mary Lohre
Review by Andrw Petiprin
Invitation to the Psalms | By Rolf A. and Karl N. Jacobsen
Pleading, Cursing, Praising | By Irene Nowell
The Case for the Psalms | By N.T. Wright
Review by Travis J. Bott
Abiding Faith | By Scott Cowdell
Review by Leander S. Harding
Other Departments
From the Archives
Sunday’s Readings
People & Places
TLC on Facebook ¶ TLC on Twitter ¶ TLC’s feed ¶ TLC’s weblog, Covenant ¶ Subscribe